Book Review of Where the Wild Things Are
The Children’s Book Review
Where the Wild Things Are
Written and Illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Ages 4+ | 48 Pages
Publisher: HarperCollins | ISBN: 0060254920
What to expect: Fantasy and Social-Emotional
Where the Wild Things Are won the Caldecott Medal in 1964, over 19 million copies of this book have been sold worldwide, and it has been made into a movie. It’s safe to say that this book is a classic.
Have you ever felt wild? Wild with anger? Wild with excitement? Wild with your imagination? On the night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief, his mother sent him to bed without supper. While in his room, a forest grew, and an ocean and a boat appeared. Max sails off to where the wild things are, becoming the king of all the wild things. When all becomes quiet, and the wild rumpus is over, Max, feeling lonely, returns home, and finds his supper waiting for him … “still hot.”
It’s strange and exciting how brave and fearless Max is when encountering monstrous wild things. Between the simplicity of words and the page-filling evocative pictures that are so captivating, readers are quickly swept into this story of emotions that also offers a thought-provoking look at time.
Where the Wild Things Are is a story you will want to read through night and day and in and out of weeks. It’s totally fine to be wild about this book!
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About the Author-Illustrator
For more than forty years, the books Maurice Sendak has written and illustrated have nurtured children and adults alike and have challenged established ideas about what children’s literature is and should be. The New York Times has recognized that Sendak’s work “has brought a new dimension to the American children’s book and has helped to change how people visualize childhood.” Parenting recently described Sendak as “indisputably, the most revolutionary force in children’s books.”
What to Read Next If You Love Where the Wild Things Are
In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
Nutshell Library, by Maurice Sendak
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown
Bianca Schulze reviewed Where the Wild Things Are. Discover more books like Where the Wild Things Are by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Fantasy.